PROGRESS
ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF
ICT IN EDUCATION
IN SOUTH AFRICA
“I think it's fair to say that
personal computers have
become the most
empowering tool we've ever
created. They're tools of
communication, they're tools
of creativity, and they can be
shaped by their user.”
Bill Gates
INTRODUCTION



Information and communications technologies (ICTs)
play a significant role in today’s education and society
(Surty, 2010).
The past 15 years “in South Africa has been
characterised by major transformation at all levels in the
education system.” (Parker, 2006:59).
The introduction of ICTs in education “represents an
important part of Government's strategy to improve the
quality of teaching and learning” and deliver lifelong
learning “across the education and training system.”
(White Paper on e-Education, DoE, 2004:19)
CHALLENGES FOR EDUCATION
Establish South Africa as an advanced
Information Society
 Access, cost effectiveness and quality of
education; and
 Integration of ICTs into the learning and
teaching process

E-EDUCATION GOAL
“Every South African learner
in the General and Further
Education and Training
bands will be ICT capable
(that is, use ICT confidently
and creatively to help
develop the skills and
knowledge they need to
achieve personal goals and
to be full participants in the
global community) by
2013.”
(Department of Education,
2004:17)
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES






Infrastructure: To provide access to ICT infrastructure for
administrative and teaching and learning purposes
Professional development: Educators, managers &
administrators knowledge, skills & support needed to integrate
ICTs in teaching and learning
Content: Software, electronic content & online learning
resources
Connectivity: To support an
online learning environment
Community
Research & development:
Explore various innovation in ICTs
in education
STATUS OF ICT INFRASTRUCTURE IN EDUCATION
7000
6000
Schools
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
EC
FS
G
KZN
L
M
NW
NC
WC
Schools
5929
1752
1880
5651
4243
1749
2115
421
1454
Administration
1232
941
1880
3200
918
1045
1428
281
1454
Teacher use
1232
793
1250
3200
918
1045
1428
60
1453
Teaching and Learning
1084
421
1250
100
303
508
1000
307
932
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT/ TEACHER
SUPPORT

Guidelines for Teacher
Training and Professional
Development in ICT (2007)

Teacher Laptop Initiative
CONTENT

The Thutong Education
Portal provides over 14,000
digital content resources,
has 10000 registered users
and averages 80,000 hits a
month

There are 84 learning
spaces on the portal
including a Support for
Matric Space
CONNECTIVITY



Central to connectivity is
the creation of a Virtual
Private Network (VPN)for
Education
The VPN would be
connected to schools by
available last mile
connectivity
The VPN would provide an
environment of educational
resources (Thutong) and
administrative purposes
(SA-SAMS/LURITS/NEIMS)
ICT IN SCHOOLS
 Computer
literacy classes
 FET subjects IT and CAT
 Teaching & learning support resource
 SA-SAMS, e.g. administration & finance
 LURiTS
ADMINISTRATION
SA-SAMS
South African School Administration and
Management System
 Pat Bulling,
Director of Education Management Systems


“will provide the standard for all school data and school
administration systems at ground level” (Gibson, 2009:18)
LURITS




Learner Unit Record Information And Tracking System
Went live for first time in 2009 & still being rolled out
across the country
Expected to be fully populated by October 2010
Already, about 4-million learner records captured
(30% of the information input)
NEIMS
National Education Infrastructure Management
System
 Houses all the data about school infrastructure
required for planning purposes, including e.g.

 number
of classrooms,
 condition of buildings,
 water supply,
 type of electricity supply
PROVINCES
Gauteng (Online)

67% (1 493) of Gauteng’s 2 200 schools already have “access not only to computers, but to
the wider world as well through Internet access.” (Gibson, 2009:46). “The Gauteng Online
project, which was first conceived back in 2002, … aims to provide every school in the province
with a computer laboratory, giving every learner in the public schooling system access to the
Internet and to e-mail.”
Free State

80% of FS’s 1550 schools linked to SA-SAMS

Makes principals’ jobs easier, e.g. timetabling; puts their school on par with others

Prov. dept. can watch learners’ & schools’ performance for trends & problems
Western Cape (Khanya)

1136 schools have been helped to use technology effectively

Another 118 schools are in various stages of preparation for the next wave of implementation

A total of 43886 computers are used in Khanya schools (of these 27157 have been funded by
Khanya or its donor partners, and the balance of 16729 have been procured by the schools
themselves)

24970 Educators are being empowered to use technology optimally for curriculum delivery

823550 learners are already reaping the benefits of the project
ICT IN THE CLASSROOM

ICT “is one of the key things that we are committed to”. “We need to
tap into the potential of ICT to maximise the work we are doing in
education.” (Gibson, 2009:40)

Proof of Concept
 Aims to demonstrate that it is possible to implement the ICT in
Education initiative
 1 unit of implementation per province
 Unit of implementation = geographically adjacent district/circuit(s)
 135 – 200 schools per unit of implementation
 Carried out over a 3 year period, including planning & implementation
stages
 All provinces involved, most in early planning stage; NW starting to
implement
ICT RESOURCE CENTRES IN SUPPORT OF THE
POC
ICT RESOURCE CENTRES IN POC DISTRICTS

The ICT Resource Centre in
the Mpumalanga province
was launched on 1 June
2010

The ICT Resource Centre in
the North West Province
will be launched in October
2010
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY USAGE



High mobile telephony
penetration rates in
Africa
Majority of population
are Youth
Emergence of undersea
cables in Sub-Saharan
Africa (Seacom, West
Africa Cable System
(WACS), and the EASSy
Cable)
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY USAGE
60.0
50.0
49.1
Percentage
40.0
30.0
27.4
20.8
20.0
16.9
11.8
10.0
0.0
Africa
Americas
Asia
Europe
Oceania
Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY PROJECT



Innovative application
of mobile telephony to
support teaching and
learning
Focusing mainly on
Mathematics
Promote sharing,
collaboration, and
exchange of learning
resources and content
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Technology Architecture
Learning
management system
Between 14:00 – 20:00 on Mondays to
Thursdays learners can get online
tutorial support from tutors
Curriculum developed for Gr 10 Mathematics
Developed by WebAlt
Interface developed on Moodle platform
Online
support
To be developed by Mindset
Content
hosting
To be developed by DoE
MXIT Technology used to deliver content
(closed environment)
Thutong
Delivery
Channel
1
Riitta Vänskä (Nokia) / Lucky Masilela (NSN) 10.09.2008
THANK YOU
ICTs are not about
the hardware…
….or the software…
but about the
WARM-ware
Batho Pele!
(People first)
Mr. Edward Mosuwe
Acting Deputy Director-General
Department of Basic Education
Tel: +27 (0) 12 357 4087
e-mail: mosuwe.e@dbe.gov.za